Lies
Al Franken, one of our savviest satirists (People), has been studying the rhetoric of the Right. He has listened to their cries of slander, bias, and even treason. He has examined the Bush administration's policies of squandering our surplus, ravaging the environment, and alienating the rest of the world. He's even watched Fox News. A lot. And, in this fair and balanced report, Al bravely and candidly exposes them all for what they are: liars. Lying, lying liars. Al destroys the liberal media bias myth by doing what his targets seem incapable of: getting his facts straight. Using the Right's own words against them, he takes on the pundits, the politicians, and the issues, in the most talked about book of the year. Timely, provocative, unfailingly honest, and always funny, Liessticks it to the most right-wing administration in memory, and to the right-wing media hacks who do its bidding.
Stats for nerds
0recommend
4mentions
4people
2013–2025years
100% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I like to point out in these threads that my first exposure to "pornography" was a cunnilingus scene in Al Franken's political tirade Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. I was eleven.
I don't think my parents had realized that scene was in the book. But I don't think it matters that much. Kids are going to encounter sex. In a pre-industrial society, it's pretty likely that children would catch adults having sex at some point during their childhood -- even assuming they didn't see their own parents doing it at a very young age. Privacy used to be more difficult. Houses often had one bedroom.
I don't mean to say that content controls are useless. I think it was probably for the better that I wasn't watching tons of porn in middle school. But I don't think that content controls need to be perfect; we don't need to ensure that the kids are never exposed to any pornographic content. As long as it isn't so accessible that the kid is viewing it regularly, it probably isn't the end of the world. Like in the one story, PornHub didn't even have a checkbox to ask if you were eighteen. Just don't do that. I didn't end up downloading porn intentionally myself until about five years after reading that book.
- Fair, though if someone's just listing numbers that are easy to check, the content's probably less biased than the emphasis.
Worth checking anyway, because it's any single source.
If you look at property and vehicle taxes, they're a little above average: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-states-to-be-a-taxpayer...
From the same site, income taxes are a little below average but not zero.
Sales taxes are decidedly higher than average (in part due to local taxes): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_Stat...
I'd prefer a more progressive mix that deemphasizes sales taxes in favor of income taxes.
But most stories describe this as some kind of suicide pact. That seems somewhat extreme.
Yes, there was a budget crunch after this, but the same budget crunch was felt in similar states without tax policy changes, most likely driven by lingering impacts of the great recession and changes in federal tax policy.
Al Franken had a great line about media bias in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. He said everyone thinks the media is biased towards right or left when it's really just biased towards calamity and sensationalism.
Cato is right-wing, but the rest of the world is trying to sell you papers. Caveat emptor either way.
EDIT: Hmm, tried to provide a balanced reply with more neutral sources with a level tone. Downvote was a good reminder that Politics is the Mindkiller.
- As others have said, it's within limited scope.
cf: "Lies: and Lying Liars Who Tell Them (A Fair and Balanced look at the right)" http://www.amazon.com/Lies-Lying-Liars-Tell-Them/dp/04522852... - was sued by Fox News because they own "Fair and Balanced." The suit was thrown out, because it's selling a book, not the news.
- Al Franken describes it best in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them:
"They don't get it. We love America just as much as they do, but in a differenct way. You see, they love America the way a four-year-old loves her mommy. [We] love America like grown-ups. To a four-year-old everything mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes mommy is bad. Grown-up love means understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad, and helping your loved one grow."
